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The 18 day Egyptian revolution captured the world’s attention just over a year ago, but media blackouts and the narrow scope of news coverage here in the US, resulted in few candid, real-time accounts of events by Egyptians on the ground. In his remarkable new book, Liberation Square: Inside the Egyptian Revolution and the Rebirth of a Nation, Egyptian journalist, Ashraf Khalil recounts the chaotic days of the revolution in vivid detail. In describing the mood and events on the pivotal Day of Rage protests on January 28th, 2011, just three days after the revolution began, Ashraf Khalil relates an exchange he had with one protester: as the two were enveloped in tear-gas and facing a violent onslaught of Egyptian security forces the young man, raw with emotion, told the journalist, “I expect the government to fall today. There will be dead bodies in the streets. I have nothing to lose anymore.I have a degree in information technology, and I’ve been sitting at home for the past three years.” Intimate exchanges like this make Khalil’s Liberation Square an exclusive account of the movement that inspired the world.

His book transports readers to the streets of Cairo, alongside protesters chanting for the end of Hosni Mubarak’s reign, and into Tahrir Square as demonstrators camped out and fought against Central Security officers. In addition to a birds-eye-view of the action, Khalil takes the reader back 30 years to recount the series of events that allowed Hosni Mubarak, who Khalil calls the Accidental Dictator, to take power. In Liberation Square, Ashraf Khalil is an engaging storyteller and astute analyst as he traces the rise of Mubarak, the decline of Egyptian society, and the small acts of resistance committed over many years that culminated into the 2011 revolution.

This is part 2 of a three part interview.